0 Comments
Leave Your Comment »
#ark
Or: "A Tale of Two Patricks"
Welcome to Nerds Without Pants, new listeners and old! We’re missing Angelo this week, but we have a huge special guest named Patrick Klepek. You’ve heard of him, maybe? He’s here to talk about interesting game mechanics that we’d like to see exploited more often, and it’s sure to be an interesting episode. Enjoy!
He is the snake to my mongoose. Or the mongoose to my snake. Either way, it’s bad. I don’t know animals.
I could write a perfectly standard review of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. I could go point by point and explain how this is a third person action game with heavy emphasis on stealth and melee combat in the vein of Batman: Arkham Asylum/City. I could talk about the great graphics and the satisfying fighting mechanics, and how some of the stiff animation and problems with context-sensitive button prompts are the reason why it doesn’t get five stars. I could do all of that and you would have a good idea of what Shadow of Mordor is, but you wouldn’t understand what makes it new and special. So I have a different idea.
Take the best parts of Dark Souls II, add in some clarity, mix with a smidge of higher difficulty, and voila!
Dark Souls 2 was a great game despite the overlapping positive/negative feelings from its fans. When the three-piece DLC pack was initially announced, I pondered if it was truly a great idea since expanding on closed cases can sometimes fray loose ends. Sure, Dark Souls 2 wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t as bad as some insisted either. With the scent of the Sunken Crown lingering in the air, I was poised to see how it would tie in to the original DS2 storyline, even while I feared that over-expansion could ruin what made it so great. Thankfully I was happy with what I was given.
Come see the preview trailer for the upcoming DLC packs releasing on July 22, August 26, and September 24.
